Tom Endean, marketing manager at the British Franchise Association (bfa), said: “All franchisors will provide training of some kind, and many franchises don’t need or necessarily want people with previous experience in the same industry, as this can bring bad habits that may not help the franchise.”
Franchise training enables franchisees to carry out the actual core activities of the business, which must be done in accordance with the franchise business model. Core training for the basic operational skills can range from a few hours to several months, depending on the complexity of the business.
Franchisors also offer training that that will equip franchisees with key business skills, adds Mr Endean.
“One of the benefits of a franchise is the central support system, however, you still need to be able to understand your businesses finances; basic marketing; sales; and possibly staff management,” he says.
At, X-Press Legal Services, an associate bfa member that provides property searches and reports to solicitors and professional conveyancers, no previous experience is needed to become a franchisee.
A comprehensive two-week training programme at company headquarters in Warrington, covering all aspects of the business including local authority procedures and the various reports and searches that they will need to handle for their clients, enables new franchisees to be fully operational from day one in their own office.
They also undertake some ‘on the job’ training, accompanying senior X-Press personnel to local council offices to conduct searches.  
Among the 43 X-Press franchisees are a former undertaker, bank manager, optician, logistics experts, prison training officer and business consultant.
Before launching the X-Press Legal Services franchise for the West Oxon, Cherwell, Aylesbury, and South Bedfordshire region earlier this year, Charlie Allen, 37, had enjoyed a varied career, which included eight years in the Royal Navy and a number of business roles.
He said: “What I really wanted was to run my own business while being part of a larger team, and a franchise seemed the ideal way to achieve that. From the minute I found X-Press on the bfa website, I knew it was the right choice for me.”  
Although he had no previous experience of carrying out property searches, Mr Allen completed his training without any problems and is now running a successful business.
Tom Endean added: “Franchising inherently lends itself to good training practices, as it must ensure that all aspects of the network are adhering to the specifics of the proven business model. To have one unit as a maverick, could damage the total brand and performance of the network.”
For more information on franchising visit www.thebfa.org